"A company called Always Innovating just started shipping their ARM based smartbook". yeah but they have yet to reveal a price for it. i don't wanna pay an arm and a leg for a first gen just to have it.

gotta check out http://www.smartbook.asia its got a lot of news, it lead me here, just incase you wanna follow the news like me

Hopefully, the smartbooks running Android will include typical smartphone hardware (accelerometer, GPS, compass, etc.), so that they can be used to make cell phone calls, send SMS/MMS, in addition to running all of the other cool Android apps.

I suspect the mobile operators would love these things, because of the additional revenue opportunities over and above basic data contracts.

A company called Always Innovating just started shipping their ARM based smartbook. Its going to preorder customers right now, and the first batch will probably not even cover all of them. Its worth noting though that this is real product getting to users hands right now.

Debian has an ARM distro. And Android is also available for ARM, neither has to be compiled.

Release decent hardware and the software will follow. Remember that a lot of Mobile apps are compiled for ARM arch. I think if the battery life claims are anywhere near as good as people are claiming then these will fly off the shelves.

Where's the software going to come from? Unless you're a nerd who has the slightest, vaguest clue about downloading C++ source code and compiling your own execitables, how are you going to find software for an ARM netbook you bought on the highstreet?

And what about the vast array of closed source programs that people love so much?

Why not just install the OS that you like? (pretty much one of the BSD's or Debian considering it's on ARM arch)

Now if these devices run Linux, and I don't mean a seriously locked down installation, but allow the freedom to tinker and install your own distro (such as Debian, Ubuntu etc) then I'll get one.

If however they are locked down so much that you can't do bugger all with them apart from basic web browsing I'll probably avoid them like the plague.